more from Gwynn Compton
“Along with the more than $1.25m in support provided by Kāpiti Coast District Council to Air Chathams over the past five years, I can reveal from further LGOIMA responses that they were advanced another $850,000 from Whanganui and Whakatāne District Councils in two interest free loans, bringing the total effective subsidies and support given to them to over $2.1 million.”
On Tuesday following the earlier post David Haxton of Kapiti News put this article on the NZ Herald website:
Air Chathams responds after payments questioned in social media post [we assume the “social media post” is a reference to us, although Gwynn also put it on his FB page]
A social media post about Air Chathams getting funding from Kāpiti Coast District Council’s ratepayers’ coffers lacks the full picture, the airline’s chief financial officer Duane Emeny said. “It is disappointing to see this level of poor context applied to a scenario where the person who delivered the post had more detail on the reality of the funding provided, and why when they were in public office.
“In this instance, Kāpiti Coast District Council has done its district a service by ensuring the critical air links into Auckland are maintained post Air New Zealand’s speedy withdrawal in 2018.
“They could not predict the pandemic and were key in establishing loan agreements with all three North Island councils with which we connect flights into Auckland to ensure Air Chathams could weather the storm and come back strong, as we have done.
“The wider economic impact of these services is far more than the funding received, and when surveyed with the community, the support for retaining the airport and those critical air connections to New Zealand’s largest city were clear.”
Council’s strategy, operations and finance committee chair Sophie Handford said funding agreements for Air Chathams were made by the previous council. “There hasn’t been a discussion with this new team of people but that will be happening later in the year. We will be briefed around the current nature of those grants and agreements and then the future of them.”
She said a public excluded item at tomorrow’s committee meeting, about Kāpiti Coast Airport activity, “wasn’t about Air Chathams at all — it’s more about the ongoing nature of what’s happening at the airport such as Treaty negotiations.”
Gwynn Compton’s response to this NZ Herald article:-
“The only poor form here is Air Chathams’ COO evidently not wanting the public to have a debate or be fully informed about the level of effective subsidies provided to his business by Kāpiti Coast District Council — and at least another $850,000 provided by other Councils around the country — especially given that Council officers impaired the $500,000 loan advanced to Air Chathams in Council’s most recent annual report.”
So what is the council up to discussing this in secret?